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Biggles in Australia/plot
Chapter 1: A Pressman Sets a Poser Major Charles shows Air Commodore Raymond and the Air Police an Australian newspaper. There's a picture of von Stalhein coming ashore with a group of men at Eighty Mile Beach in Western Australia after being shipwrecked. According to his story, he had been studying oceanography but the ship, the See Taube had been caught in a willy-willy and they were castaway on a remote island. After three weeks, they repaired a ship's lifeboat and sailed for the mainland. There is plenty in Australia to interest von Stalhein: missle ranges, data from atomic bomb tests, uranium deposits. Clearly von Stalhein is up to something so Biggles and his Air Police crew are sent to investigate. Chapter 2: Wide Open Spaces Biggles and Ginger arrive at Darwin in the Otter where they learn that Algy and Bertie are slightly delayed at Singapore with engine trouble on their Halifax. Biggles meets West, an air traffic control officer whom he had last met in Biggles Works It Out. West tells him von Stalhein and his group had been flown south to Brisbane by a aircraft chartered by a man named Smith and thereafter they had all disappeared from sight. The next morning, Biggles and Ginger take off for a reconnaissance of the islands off the northwest coast of Australia, hoping to find the wreckage of the See Taube. Not finding anything, they put down on the lagoon of a coral atoll to spend the night. Chapter 3: An Uncomfortable Night During the night there is the inevitable attack by a sea creature, in this case, a decapod, much like the attack in Beauty and the Beast. The next morning, Ginger explores the island and finds pieces of paper--German newspapers and a page with a list of names. Ginger recalls spots of white on another island so they set off for it. Chapter 4: Island Without a Name On that next island they find skeletons and a geiger counter. They then find the body of a Japanese man who had a small tin of pearls--evidently the captain of a pearling lugger. He had been shot in the stomach and leg. Puzzling over this, Biggles surmises that the crews of two ships had come ashore. Von Stalhein's group had murdered those from the pearling lugger because they wanted their boat. Biggles and Ginger fly on to Eighty Mile Beach to take a look at the life boat von Stalhein came ashore in. But, like on the island as with the boat, the ship's name had been removed from everything. They push on for Broome to report the murders. Chapter 5: A Word with Sergeant Gilson At Broome, Biggles calls on Sergeant Bill Gilson, the local policeman, who identifies the tin of pearls as belonging to Toto Wada. From Biggles' description of the boat on Eighty Mile Beach, he also confirms that it came from Wada's pearling lugger. Gilson calls Perth to ask about Adamsen, a name on the list Biggles had found and discovers that it is the name of a known communist agitator. Gilson needs to identify and collect Wada's body for evidence so they arrange to fly out to the island the next morning. Chapter 6: Forestalled The next morning they set out for the island but find that a pearling lugger, the Matilda was already there. While Biggles and Gilson are ashore exporing, Ginger, on the Otter, spots von Stalhein with the lugger crew. Of course, Biggles and Gilson find nothing on the island--all the evidence has been conscientiously removed by von Stalhein and his men. Biggles and co. fly on to Eighty Mile Beach where they hope to take a closer look at the boat, but there again someone has landed in an aircraft and burnt it! At least they figure from the wheel tracks that it is an Auster. Chapter 7: Outlook Vague Back in Darwin, Biggles meets up with Algy and Bertie who have arrived in the Halifax. There is news from West who has heard form a Qantas pilot Jimmy Alston. He had seen Smith with a pilot named Cozens buying an Auster some time ago. Later, a message comes from Gilson--an Auster with the same registration as the one Smith bought was seen landing at Wyndham and then departing in the direction of Darwin. Chapter 8: The Oppostion Strikes Back Biggles spends the evening at a Darwin waterfront bar where he learns from talking to mariners that the Matilda lugger belonged to a German named Boller who owned a farm at Daly Flats up the Daly River--a name and place which was the list he had picked up. Going back to the aircraft, he sees a black form and then hears a thud. It turns out to be an attack from an Australian aborigine who runs away when discovered. Biggles retrieves a spear stuck in the fuselage and a petrol soaked rag on the ground--the spearman had wanted to set fire to the aircraft! Chapter 9: Murder in the Outback Biggles and Ginger fly back to Broome where they tell Gilson about the attack on their aircraft. Biggles now has a suspicion that part of von Stalhein's plan might have been to foment and agitate unrest among the natives. He asks Gilson if there has been any reports of trouble among the aborigines. Gilson admits some prospectors talked about a stiffening of attitudes among the natives. Gilson has also learnt that Adamsen, the agitator, has gone to Tarracooma. This was a placename on Biggles' list. Could they be planning to agitate the natives there? Biggles, Ginger and Gilson fly out to Tarracooma. Along the way they stop to look in on a prospector named Joe Hopkins who is overdue. Only Joe is not overdue, he is dead--clubbed and stabbed to death by aborigine weapons. His rifle and pouch of gold dust is missing. Gilson asks some aborigines who show up near Joe's camp if they know anything but they remain sullen and silent--behaviour which is unusual. Chapter 10: Claws Out at Tarracooma Algy and Bertie had been sent to search for the Matilda and now they rendezvous with Biggles, Ginger and Gilson back at Broome. They now decide to all go together to Tarracooma--Biggles suspects the answer to Joe's murder might be found there. The welcome from Roth, the owner of Tarracooma, and Adamsen, who happens to be there is not exactly warm. It gets worse when Gilson discovers Joe Hopkin's rifle there. Roth insists the rifle came from one of his aborigine employees named Charlie. Charlie shows up and is found to have Joe's gold pouch in his pocket. Gilson arrests both Roth and Charlie. There is a tense moment when Charlie summons the aborigine workforce which begins to converge on Biggles and co. but Gilson stares them down and they depart for Broome with their prisoners. Chapter 11: Move and Countermove The Air Police crew return to Darwin. At the airport restaurant, Ginger spots von Stalhein obviously waiting for a plane. Soon an Auster arrives for him. Biggles sends Algy to the control tower to try to ground the Auster while he stages an encounter with the German spy as he steps out to his plane. Biggles notices Cozens, the pilot and surmises that he is just an employee and not a hardened gang member. He convinces him to obey air traffic instructions and also inserts a veiled warning: "I suppose you know the sort of people you're working for?" With matters escalating and von Stalhein unlikely to leave because night had fallen, Biggles decides to take the Halifax to Sydney to brief Colonel MacEwan, an Australian Security contact which Raymond had given to him. Chapter 12: Disturbing News During the night, Cozens approaches Algy and the rest at the Otter and asks what Biggles had meant. Algy puts him wise about who von Stalhein really is. Cozens is surprised but says it makes sense about a lot of the things he has been doing. He briefly describes some of the places he has been flying to and is drawing a sketch map of Daly Flats at Algy's request when von Stalhein turns up and angrily drags Cozens away. The next morning, the Auster is still on the ground and there is not sign of Cozens. Algy and the rest surmise that Cozens might have been taken on board the Matilda bound for the Daly, so after a debate, they take off in search of it. Chapter 13: Desperate Measures They spot the Matilda going up the Daly River and Cozens is on board! Cozens sees them at the same time and takes a flying plunge into the river and is rapidly drawn downstream by the current. Algy makes a hair-raising landing on the water to pick Cozens up and they take off amid a hail of machine gun fire from the ship. Arriving at Darwin, Cozens surprises everyone by insisting on taking the Auster back to Daly Flats. He wants to collect his kit and a month's back pay! Algy and Cozens discover that the Auster had been grounded on orders fro, Sydney--something they thought Biggles must have done through Colonel MacEwan. Nonetheless Cozens is prepared to defy air traffic regulations and proceed, so Ginger and Bertie go with him, leaving Algy to meet Biggles on his return. Chapter 14: Goodbye to the Auster Cozens, Ginger and Bertie arrive at Daly Flats and soon discover that something is wrong. The place seems deserted. Smith had obviously gone down to the river to meet the Matilda. But there are dead bodies around, including one of Johnny Bates, a policeman whom the Darwin Air Traffic people had asked them to keep a look out for. Soon, they find themselves trapped in the house which served as the headquarters of the estate, surrounded by fierce aborigines who attack with spears and set fire to the Auster. Chapter 15: The Battle of Daly Flats Using firearms and tear gas grenades found in the house, Cozens, Bertie and Ginger hold off the attackers. When Ginger spots Smith, von Stalhein and the others from the Matilda approaching the house, he shouts a warning to them, not wanting to see them speared to death. Smith and Ivan however fail to heed the warning and are killed trying to reach the house. The so-called Battle of Daly Flats is finally brought to an end by the arrival of the Otter, with Biggles, Algy, Colonel MacEwan and Australian police, which also effectively ends the story. Documents found at Daly Flats would later allow the Australian authorities to roll up the spy ring entirely but once again, Biggles would be frustrated. Somehow, von Stalhein escapes again as the Matilda sails downriver and later evades surveillance under cover of a severe storm. Category:Plot summaries